@Psychotic Storm
actually, lifetime doesn't mean they have to run the game for any set period of time. It could be canceled in a week and they'd still have the $250. No refunds.

Also means if some1 quits the game, say for example if Atari/Cryptic decide to nerf XP to death & make costume parts insanely difficult to get through gameplay (but sell them for real $ in their virtual store). Then Cryptic doesn't care, they already have you for full retail price + 14 months equiv game time (16 months if some1 did the 6 month deal first).

Also people who make such a large investment will be more willing to go along w/ and purchase microtransactions. Same deal as Tom Sawyer convincing Ben Rogers that whitewashing the fence is what he really wanted to do. It weakens their self-defense mechanism & makes them more malleable.

I was on the fence about this game until beta. It is just broken & they seemed to have painted themselves in a corner w/ how the fundamental game is designed. & many of the aspects which dont work cant be changed w/o requiring severe change in how the game functions. (i.e. low population instances & outdoor quest crowding/griefing). Teaming & quest sharing yet no quest re-completion bonus. Having in game items available as microtransactions but requiring 15-80 hours of grinding to get EACH ONE through game.

I don't think any amount of revision and debugging will make this game a success. I give it one year, maybe two before closing up shop. With at least 6 months before it approaches what the rest of the industry would consider gold (i.e. not beta) status.